The Story So Far
Prologue The party had met previously and had been adventuring together a little while before the first session. The party had been together for roughly 2 weeks before the first session. They all first met in the human capital of Fairhaven which they happened to be there at the same time, originally strangers to one another (excluding Traven and Sitoth who had some history together), and were individually hired and put together in a group to help with a few typical quests like rats in cellars, stopping muggers, that sort of thing. They thought they worked pretty well together so decided to stick together as a party. Session 1: Of Beer and Swords Our story begins in the small village/adventuring hub of Greensblade, in the tavern known as The Black Boar. Our heroes are sat around the table, drinking, eating and minding their own business, until they were rudely interrupted by a loud obnoxious half-orc, gloating that he and his brother could best anyone in a drinking competition, with a pot of 20 gold to the winner. He directly challenged the dwarves of the party to which they accepted and won with little difficulty. Later on in the night, the (still slightly tipsy) half-orcs snuck upstairs to try and kill the dwarves and take back what they lost. The dwarves and Xena fended off the half-orcs while Traven couldn't be bothered with it. They cleaned up the mess and acquired a wet bloodied rag, then hid the corpses in a storage area next to the rooms where they found a passed out female warrior. They provided a bloodied dagger to frame this poor innocent character. The following morning they went down for their breakfast and the distraught blacksmith of the town enters the tavern and asks the party for assistance, as what he believes to be an ogre snuck in during the night and stole his families heirloom sword and some gold among other things. He tasked the adventurers to get back the stolen good with a reward of half the gold stolen. The party adventured on into the woods north of Greensblade seeking the ogre, but stumbled upon a goblin camp along the way and engaged them. It was during this battle Tornur accidentally critically hit Xena in the face (Dealing 18 damage) and nearly killed her outright. Thankfully she was healed and the party defeated the goblins. On one of the goblins they found a note written in Goblin, that Tornur deciphered using a spell, that outlined plans to wait for a signal before "moving in", signed by 'V'. They carried along on the path and eventually found a cave with a giant boulder in front of it. The party used their combined strength to push the boulder to one side and found the slumbering ogre with the stolen treasures inside. Sitoth attempted to perform a ''coup de grace ''to instantly kill the beast but he failed to sneak up on it and the ogre awoke enraged. Sitoth quickly fled the cave, and before the ogre also left the cave Traven used his grease spell to make the entrance slippery, causing the ogre to fall flat on it's face as he charged out of the cave, the key turning point in the battle while the party stuck at it's prone body. The ogre recovered and managed to get a nasty swing on Xena (Nearly killing her yet again) before the party defeated it and reclaimed the stolen treasure, including the blacksmith's sword. The party decided to sleep in the ogre cave for the night. Session 2: Bad News From the Ogre cave the party decided to head on home and deliver the sword and claim their reward. However on the way back to Greensblade they were ambushed by a group of Drow out in the open, shooting them with crossbows and attacking with poison-coated weaponry. The battle was intense although short. The party slew most of of the drow, except for one which managed to escape and another one they knocked out, captured and interrogated. The drow also had a note of very similar instructions to the note found by the goblins, in the same handwriting and signed by 'V' yet again. Sitoth looted some drow poison from the corpses. The party tried to get some information from the captured drow but the best they could get were a few cryptic messages like "He's going to kill you all". They took him back to Greensblade where they were held up by a guard who demanded to know why this drow filth was in their possession. After a brief explanation about the ambush and the stubbornness of the drow, the party handed the drow over to the guard who then beheaded him in sight of the party. The party carried on to the blacksmith and returned his sword to which he was extremely thankful for, and the party kept a cut of the gold as promised (200 gold total). The party then headed back to the tavern to rest. Tornur spoke to the innkeeper and asked of any rumors, he said a woman upstairs was arrested for drunken murder and Leader of the Council and Captain of the Guard were both feeling very nervous about something. For this reason the party decided to split and investigate, Traven went to the mayor carrying one note while Xena and Tornur went to the captain of the guard with the other, and Sitoth decided to stay at the Tavern. When Traven went to the Council building it seemed a little busy with a slight queue for people to be spoken to, notably the blacksmith was also present at the desk. Traven spoke elvish to the Elf leader of the council (introducing herself as Elise) asking to speak in private. Traven provided a note and Elise seem more worried and said the 'V' on the note must stand for Valen, a cruel and vicious drow elf and her fears seemed to have come true. She was too distressed to speak more of it and said she must attend other business, but said he must take the note to the Mayor of Erlaksar. Tornur and Xena arrived at the barracks and the captain of the guard was pacing uneasily. When they discussed the issue with him and presented a note the captain elaborated and said they feared an attack was on the horizon which is why he and the Mayor seem nervous. When presented with the note he also said they should take it to the Mayor of Erlaskar as he could do more with it. The party rested for the night in The Black Boar and left for Erleskar the following morning. On the path they encountered some bandits which they dispatched of with relative ease. Session 3: The Attack on Erlaskar The party carried on to Erleskar and were planning on resting for the night but not before a wild worg appeared to attack the party. Xena dispatched of the worg with frightening ease, and then carved it up for a meal. The party camped for the night and Tornur cooked the worg meat so badly the party had to roll constitution checks to try and not vomit. They all passed. The following morning the party continued on the path to Erlaskar, but they spotted a corpse hidden in a bush. They looted the corpse and found a strange dagger with a symbol on the hilt which no one in the party could identify. Sitoth scratched the dagger on a rock which only resulted in blunting the dagger a little. Nobody really understood why. Shortly after the party arrived in Erlaskar which was noticeably a much larger and prosperous location compared to Greensblade. They were held up by a guard and were provided to state their business. Tornur was honest and said they had urgent business with the Mayor regarding his worries and they were granted access. Sitoth also inquired into where he might deal with poisons and ended up having his own drow poison confiscated as security had been tightened since the mayor's worries. The party went to the mayor and was once again held up and told he was extremely busy, but with the same reason of information they got past the guards went to mayors. Mayor Garen was busy with a lot of paperwork and was discussing thing with consultants, but the party managed to catch his attention and showed to him the translated notes. He seemed more worried that his fears had come true but he thanked the party for the confirmation. He explained to them the back story behind Valen the Usurper, provided one platinum and written consent to allow free food at the Harper and Axe tavern. Once the discussion was over, the party split and Sitoth went to the alchemists, Traven and Tornur to the blacksmiths and Xena to the bar. Sitoth visited the alchemists and enquired about poisons to which he was shushed, the door locked, the blinds on the windows closed, and led behind the counter into a separate room with poisons galore. He purchased some medium spider venom and left the alchemists back to The Harper and Axe, leaving the alchemist somewhat dissapointed. Traven and Tornur visited the dwarvern blacksmith and enquired about the dagger they found, the blacksmith noted the blade was blunted slightly but couldn't figure out what the symbol on the dagger meant until he looked it up in a book, and discovered it meant the Symbol of the Lich. They sold the dagger to the blacksmith for one gold. Xena went to the bar and was perved on by a drunk, who eventually just passed out. Soon the rest of the party arrived and booked rooms for the night (forgetting they had the mayor's note, ended up paying for it). They also had another drinking competition which all the party was involved in, and the party won although it was a closer contest than the first drinking competition. During the night as the party was preparing to sleep, a rat snuck into the room and started to pillage through Sitoth's stuff, grabbed some parchent and retreated into a little hole. Shortly after it tried to do the same but Tornur put his shield in the way of the hole so it couldn't escape and squished the rat, and then settled on back to bed. During the night a loud horn was heard which woke the party up, they donned their gear and departed downstairs to ask what was going on. A bloodied guard stumbled into the tavern delcaring "we're under attack" before collapsing. Tornur healed him and the party left the tavern to face the threat. The town was filled with drow elves, goblins and orcs fighting the guards of the city, and the party jumped in to assist the defence. Soon a drow carrying a dire flail appeared, who matched the description of Valen and began to take out the guards, the party intercepted and Traven used the Enlarge Person spell to make Xena bigger, who got off a nasty strike against this figure, forcing him to retreat. Eventually after much combat and death, the town and the party were triumphant. Session 4: Preparation It was late at night when the battle of Erlaskrar finished. The mayor came out to inspect the aftermath of Attack on Erlaskar, he was greatful for the assistance the party provided. He suggested they get some rest and asked the party to come and speak with him in the morning. The party overheard a guard say if they weren't tipped off of the attack they wouldn't have been as defensible as they were. The following morning the party went to the mayor as requested. The mayor again showed his gratitude but said while Erlaskar and Sylbaran held firm, Greensblade has fallen to Valen's attacks. He said Valen needed to be stopped or the bloodshed will continue and tasked the party with hunting down and killing Valen. He said they believe Valen's base of operations is in the gloaming and he can supply rations for the journey. He promised a great reward should they succeed, although he did not disclose what this reward is. Xena asked if she and the party could get horses for the journey, and the mayor wrote a note on paper and said for her to give it to the stables near the north of town and she'll get her horses. He also mentioned the wizard of the town wishes to see Traven and provide him something that would be "Important in fighting Valen". Xena departed to the stables while the other three went to the wizards shop to see why he wished to speak to Traven. Upon arriving at the wizard's, the wizard greeted Traven with enthusiasm and spoke of his families heritage of masterful Arborshate wizards, and did not think he would see one with his own eyes. Once he stopped admiring Traven he got down to business and provided Traven with a Scroll of Enfeeblement, which he can learn or use straight from the scroll. He warns there is no guarantee he will successfuly learn it, but said the spell will help in the battle as it'll weaken Valen's strength rendering him easier to face. The party met together again once Xena obtained the horses, and departed Erlaskar and headed along the path to Xandrar and up along past Lake Galifar, and will cut across to adjacent to The Gloaming once they reach that point. They could have cut straight through the woods to The Gloaming but the party decided against it, and stuck to the safer route. During one of the nights camping by the roadside, the party set up a routine watch. Nothing too eventful happened during the night, however Sitoth with his mind on money noticed Xena's money pouch appeared larger than the rest of the party, and confronted her about it the following morning. Once they reached about the halfway point they were attacked by a group of bounty hunters, claiming Tornur had a bounty on their head and they'd get a pretty price for taking him in. This came as a shock to the party, Tornur included, but nevertheless fought off the bandits and defeated them. They picked up the wanted poster they were carrying and Tornur did indeed seem to have a bounty on his head. Session 5: ??? The session will begin immediately after the bounty hunter attack, which will raise the question: Why does Tornur have a bounty on his head?